A Brief History of Smoking Bans

San Francisco boasts some of the country’s most stringent anti-smoking laws. but one unintended consequence is burdening business owners. Lighting up a cancer stick is getting pretty darn illegal in these sour-dough-bread-eating parts. In 2010, SF passed new restrictions making it illegal to smoke on any outdoor patio and within 15 feet from any open window or doorway. State lawmakers also approved a bill to outlaw smoking at 278 state parks and beaches. Other than electronic cigarettes, the future of smoking looks uncertain in California, Let’s a historical look at the evolution of smoking bans – and find out how we got to this smokeless point in time:

-1575, a Mexican ecclesiastical council constructed a ban that forbid the use of tobacco in any church in Mexico and the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean.

-1624. Pope Urban VII threatened to excommunicate anyone who “took tobacco” in the porchway or inside a church; whether it was chewed, smoked with a pipe, or sniffed in powdered form through the nose.

-1876, The first building in the world to have a smoke-free policy was the Old Government Building in Wellington, New Zealand – due to concerns over fire safety since it was the second largest wooden building in the world.

-1941, under orders of Adolf Hitler the first modern, nationwide tobacco ban was imposed by the Nazi Party in every German university, post office, military hospital, and Nazi Party office, under the auspices of Karl Astel’s Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research.

-1975, Minnesota enacted the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act, making it the first state to ban smoking in most public spaces. Restaurants were required to have No Smoking sections.

-1990, San Luis Obispo, California, became the first city in the world to ban indoor smoking at all public places, including bars and restaurants.

-1998, it became illegal to smoke in bars, restaurants and public places in California .

With more and more bans being implemented, what does the future hold for smokers? Will smokers be forced to live in their own cities like in the movie Escape from New York? Will smokers slowly die off and become extinct? Hmmm, I wonder? Only time will tell my friend, only time will tell.